fema-report.jpgOh, hypocrisy.  Thy name is Sen. Susan Collins.  From Maine Coast Now:

Susan Collins must hope that the media has a short memory.

There is no other explanation why Collins would be whining again that the opposing political party is — now get this — trying to hold her accountable.

A Collins campaign hack released a copy of a letter this week that had been sent by her to Democratic challenger Tom Allen, asking that the Democrats stop filming Collins’ every campaign appearance. The hack referred to the practice as tracking and said it demeans the political process.

Give me a break.

Collins tried this same tactic, successfully, in 1996 when she ran for the U.S. Senate against the Democratic former Gov. Joseph Brennan.

A few weeks before the election, Collins’ staff and the political reporter for the Bangor Daily News conspired to coordinate a story that made it look like Brennan was using dirty campaign tactics against Collins. In the weekend Bangor Daily, across the top of the entire front page, was a story that could have been written by the Collins staff.

And what, in reality, had occurred? The Democrats had hired a person to — gasp — research Collins’ political background….

The story and the newspaper’s subsequent follow-up stories came out so close to the election that it tipped the balance. In the end, the political dirty trick of the Collins campaign worked — she squeaked out a victory that she otherwise would not have earned.

After the fact, it came out that the reporter John Day had been in close contact with a Collins campaign that was in dire trouble. The scheme was unearthed when an e-mail sent by Day to the Collins campaign was inadvertently sent out to other parties.

Collins had denied any involvement in this orchestrated “scandal” but it became clear that her campaign was the source of this concocted story….

Nowhere in the story does it include the history of Collins’ prior plot to divert attention from her record by attacking the integrity of her opponent.  (emphasis mine)

Well, that’s awfully illuminating, isn’t it?  Take a planted political lie and a pliant member of the press that worked for you in a prior campaign season…and voila!  The whole tracker tap dance has been a false, planted campaign tactic all along, and is a rinse, lather, repeat from her 1996 campaign.  Classy.  Fool me once, shame on you — try to fool me twice?  Well, that’s just fraud, isn’t it?  You shouldn’t buy it, either.  But is the bulk of the press in Maine noticing that egg on their faces just yet? 

You can help Sen. Collins enjoy an early retirement and plenty of free time to contemplate the meaning of the words “crying wolf” by contributing to Tom Allen at our Blue America page.  Thank you!

(Photo via USAToday by Chip Somodovilla/Getty Images.  Just a little reminder that Sen. Collins and her BFF Sen. Joe Lieberman have done a lot of tap dancing in place on Katrina.  And not much else.  Have you had your cup of accountability and sunshine today?)

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